California
Reintroducing Cars To Pedestrian Malls
Downtown Sacramento's 'K' St. has been one of the city's most notable economic failures. Banning cars while providing the light rail an undisturbed path never fulfilled the hopes that urban planners had for the pedestrian mall. Now cars will return.
L.A. is Still #1
In terms of smog, metropolitan Los Angeles is still the worst city in the United States. In fact, all 10 of the smoggiest counties are in California, according to an annual report from the American Lung Association.
Toxic Suburbia
A 50-acre section of the Los Angeles suburb of Carson is contaminated with methane gas and benzene. Owners of the 285 homes in the area are left with few options.
Electrify Or Die
That's the verdict from a report released April 22 by officials of Caltrain, the nearly 150-year-old commuter line connecting San Francisco, San Jose, and Peninsula suburbs. In turn, the key to electrification is cooperation with the CA HSR Authority
Consolidating Stops to Make Buses Run Faster
Riders of San Francisco's Muni bus system often complain that the buses stop too much. Now, evidence is building that simply consolidating bus stops will help to make the buses run faster and more reliably.
Vintners in the City
The Wall St. Journal reports on a growing trend for wineries to set up show in cities, trucking their grapes to warehouse "cellars" to be closer to the people.
Comparing San Francisco's Tenderloin and L.A.'s Skid Row
This blog post from Governing explores the similarities between San Francisco's troubled Tenderloin district and Los Angeles' Skid Row-adjacent Spring Street corridor, and why one struggles and the other has found some developmental success.
From Bedroom Communities to Jet Engine Communities
More and more people working in the San Francisco Bay Area are opting for cheaper housing outside the region. Some are going way outside the region, commuting by airplane from Portland or Seattle.
Market Crash Leaves L.A. Flush With High-Priced Plots
Bought at the height of the real estate market and intended for conversion into high-priced luxury apartment buildings, empty plots of land are littered throughout Los Angeles, undeveloped and quietly back on the market at greatly reduced prices.
Saving Modernism in Palm Springs
Palm Springs is seen as a haven for Modernist architecture, but so far no local buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Suburb That Never Was
California City, California was designed to be the state's next great metropolis. But today it's hardly more than a dream. Geoff Manaugh reports on this modern-day ghost town.
Portland the Weird
The Economist looks at Portland's "weirdness" with an arched eyebrow, and asks, is this the next great model for the American city?
Conservation Efforts Straining Water Infrastructure
Water conservation efforts that limited when Los Angeles County residents could water their lawns may have caused a spate of water main bursts last summer and fall.
Radical Growth Management
Who should pay for growth? In the crunchy enclave of Bolinas California, newcomers pay a steep entrance fee. Fair or not, it's a good anecdote to share among planners and budget analysts.
Ambitious Plan for San Francisco's Treasure Island
Plans for a re-envisioned Treasure Island are reaching the approval stage. John King takes a close look at the ambitious plan, which includes lots of protected open space and a 650 ft. tower.
'49 Cities' That Made a Difference
"49 Cities" is a touring exhibition that looks at the relationship between urban design and the success or failure of cities, from Levittown to ancient Rome to Le Corbusier's Radiant City.
The Age of Infrastructure
Alex Marshall argues that the previous decade saw a dawning awareness of infrastructure and the importance of investing in it, in the United States and around the world.
Bay Area Rediscovers the Creeks Under The Streets
A new proposal in Berkeley to daylight a portion of Strawberry Creek is the latest in a lineage of small interventions to bring buried portions of the urban watershed to the surface.
Bay Area Commuter Railroad On Life Support
Caltrain, the Peninsula railroad that dates back to 1863 serving points between San Francisco and San Jose, could potentially cease operations or at the least, cut all non-commute service.
China Tells CA: We'll Build Your Trains
A number of foreign countries and firms are jockeying to build high-speed rail in California, but the Chinese government is proposing that they cover some of the financing as well.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority
